Can I burn CD's with Audacity?

[airhendrix]

Just wondering.

Oh and by the way, why is Windows Media Player only feature 192 kbps as the highest burn quality for its player (WMP11 to be exact)?

Should I use a different software to burn CD's into 320 Kbps cause I'm burning a cd for my sis from my music collection on my computer , lemme know.

[kozikowski]

Windows Media is the Desperation Method. I use Easy CD Creator on one machine and Veritas Record Now on the other. iTunes for Windows (free) may do it, too.

You should be capturing and editing in top quality WAV format. The generally accepted settings are 44100, 16-bit, Stereo WAV. Let the CD Authoring software generate the appropriate files and song order. Music CDs are not compressed, so any compression tricks you do in the middle just creates headaches and music damage.

Koz

[airhendrix]

Ok cool. I was just wondering if I should change it to the kbps rates on Windows Media Player 11.

I don't have a cd burner on this computer, so it doesn't have it on the tab, but on my mom's computer, it has a burn tab (which obviously means she has a cd burner), and there was a (Recommended) setting which I think said something like "leave it like it is lol"

^ Can you check WMP11 and see what setting that is "recommended" in the burn tab and see if its ok?

I just burned 3 cds for my sis and they sounded pretty good on my comp though I hope its as good as the 320 kbps mp3s I pumped into the program lol .

[airhendrix]

Is the recommended setting for the Burn tab in Windows Media Player 11 ok? Or is it not like the 320 kbps mp3s I burned at all?

[steve]

Windows Media Player is not really recommended for CD burning at all - as Koz said "the Desperation Method".

When you burn an audio CD (with any program) - the audio format on the CD MUST be "44100Hz 16 bit WAV" because that is the format that is used on audio CD's. Any other format may play on your computer, but it will not be a standard audio CD and will not play on many CD players.

Some CD burning software will automatically convert MP3's into the required WAV format as long as you have specified that you want an audio CD.

I can't advise you on WMP as I gave up using it years ago (I suspect that Koz did too). There are many good CD burning programs available cheaply, (for example "Nero Essentials") which burn audio CD's very well.

[airhendrix]

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Should I get that and burn the mp3s onto my blank cds with that program?

[steve]

"exact Audio Copy" (EAC) is a CD ripper - you use it to extract audio files from a CD. As long as the CD is not physically damaged it will copy the audio from a CD and create a WAV file perfectly. (You also have to make sure that you set it up correctly, so read the instructions.

EAC is not a CD writer.

On Windows, I use "Nero" for burning CD's (writing audio files onto CD), and I would recommend it. For making data CD's or audio CD's, "Nero Express", or "Nero Essentials" will do the job very well, and are inexpensive.

On Linux, Brasero and K3B are veru good and are free.

[airhendrix]

Ok. My mom has Nero Express on her comp so what settings should I use to maximize quality, and would also work in most cd players?

Lol, just wanna know . Can you gimme a step by step with that program cause I only use Windows Media Player for my burning but now I'm changing that lol .

[steve]

so what settings should I use to maximize quality, and would also work in most cd players?

For best quality, always work from WAV files and not MP3. When working in Audacity, set the preferences to use 32 bit audio as the default, and export your files as "16 bit 44100Hz WAV"

In Nero, just set it to make an "audio CD" and Nero will set everything else up for you.
(Nero includes full documentation).

[airhendrix]

Awesome. Thanks Steve, you're the man.

By the way, how do you know so much about audio? Do you happen to work in sound or are you just naturally this awesome at answering questions lol?